The Spirit of Pisces – Astrology for the Seasons

Welcome back to Astrology for the Seasons – a monthly blog series where I explore the wisdom that each astrological season can offer us. I started this series to experiment living in alignment with the lessons and insights of each astrological season, as a way to strengthen mental, emotional, energetic or all-around health.

Before there was a beginning, and after there was an ending…there was Pisces.

Pisces is the space between life, and the after-life. Mystical, confusing, foggy, blurry, whimsical. Like a lucid dream – you may be aware of yourself, but reality is distorted and you don’t know how to make sense of it. You’re floating in water and on air at the same time.

Pisces is the space that we all must travel through right before we are born, and right after we die.

Pisces is life in the womb, right before you’re ready for birth. You can sense what’s going on in the world you’re about to enter, but it’s muffled. Like someone trying to talk to you when you’re underwater. You have energetic feelers reaching through the boundaries of your immediate environment, and you are impacted by the pain and distress of the outside world. You absorb it all, even though you have no way of processing or understanding what it is.

Pisces is what happens to our spirit right after we die. Over the last few years I have been developing and honing my relationship with the spirit world, with the dead, and this is what I’ve learned: When people cross over, they are not immediately enlightened as a Spirit Guide. They have to go through their own adjustment and grieving process, just like the people they’ve left behind. The death process continues even after the body takes permanent rest. They have to re-learn who they are in a new form. It takes time to receive closure and come to terms with the body they’ll never experience again. Everyone takes their own unique journey, pace, rhythm and time to grieve the loss of loved ones, the loss of self, and this applies to both the living and the dead. Pisces is this transitional space and time – on earth and in spirit.

Pisces is the bridge that dissipates boundaries between opposite and contradictory realms. What is the difference between earth and spirit? Body and energy? Life and death? Who knows. To be endowed with the spirit of Pisces is to understand this confusion completely, and to be perpetually confused by this understanding. Pisces is consciousness that is so expansive, so impossible, that it blows wide open into a blurry, messy, indefinable blob.

Somewhat paradoxically, in order to feel calm, grounded, and stable, Pisces needs to stay connected to unearthly realms and states of being. Anything that allows us to suspend our reality and alter our consciousness is Pisces territory: meditation, substance use, magic, daydreaming, astral projection, clairvoyance, lucid dreaming, role playing, method acting, disassociating, staring out into space, swimming/being submerged by water, or intense experiences with music, art or sex.

Pisces is the last constellation of the zodiac, right before Aries begins another cycle. The epilogue to one story, and the prologue of what’s to come next. Pisces is about revisiting and coming to terms with everything that has happened in the previous cycle – not physically, not logically, but emotionally. Like a sponge, Pisces has absorbed all the pain, ecstasy, unrequited love, lessons learned and unanswered questions that every zodiac sign has experienced before.

Remember, the point of this blog series is to learn from the spirit of each zodiac sign, because every zodiac sign is a part of our being. While we do have each sign’s energy in different proportion, some more than others, still, each one manifests somewhere specific in our birth chart. For example, I may have an abundance of Gemini, and many of my core personality characteristics are Gemini, but when it comes to money I get really Capricorn. I experience all 12 signs somehow, and that is true for everyone.

No sign more than Pisces understands the significance of this concept. No other sign gets this intimacy felt with evvverryyyyoonneee and evverrrryyyyythiinnggg!!!

Pisces does not just know of and receive all the energy that came before it. Pisces is in looove with the heart of each spirit.

If you’ve ever been close to a Pisces, the worst thing you could ask them to do is choose between everyone and everything they love. The worst thing you could do is attempt to hold a live fish in your hands and keep it in one place. Let that fishy swim free and go with the flow, even if they don’t know where they’re headed. Let that fishy roam in all waters: jumping in and out of the surface while listening to seagulls, and traveling into ocean parts that are deeper than Mount Everest is tall.

birth chart photo from astrolibrary.com

In astrology, our birth charts are drawn as a circle, and this is the heart of Pisces energy – that which longs to be whole and complete and filled with everything in existence. In a spiritual sense, the astrological cycle is often thought of as God’s journey of becoming divine. Starting with Aries, each zodiac sign contains a divine energy, a sacred lesson; and it’s only when that circle is completed that “God” can be realized.

In human terms, astrology describes our journey of becoming ourselves. A journey that, throughout our lives, requires us to keep re-returning to the sacred person we decided to be the exact moment we took our first breath. According to Pisces, this concept of “God” or the holy that exists in humanity, is nothing more or less than love.

So yes: Pisces is endlessly, helplessly devoted to the necessity of you.

Moreover, Pisces loves every part of you – the part that messes up and fails and never figures it out, and the part of you that is divine and holy and untouchable in your magnificence.

Pisces knows that in this sacred circle in the sky, if ever any sign would go missing, the whole universe would collapse. It just wouldn’t work. It would be like puncturing a hole in a balloon. Everything would deflate.

Herein lies the crux of why Pisces loves so hard and grieves so hard. Pisces feels intensely, all the time, the reality of life, love and loss embedded in the simple truth that the seasons change.

There’s something about Pisces that holds the emotional memory of every being who has ever lived and died. When they experience loss, they literally feel like a hole got punctured into their world and the universe at large is deflating around them.

So can you blame your Pisces friends for being a little extra weepy!? A little emotionally overloaded, exhausted, moody or deflated? I think our beautiful, sad friend Eeyore was a Pisces.

The thing is, when a Pisces experiences overwhelming feelings of loss and grief for something unknowable, unnameable, and intangible, what they are really grieving, is themselves.

It’s the never-ending search to remember who they were before life and after death, when they were fully integrated into the totality of all existence. To access what it felt like to be one with everything and everyone they ever loved.

Like, okay. It’s like when Buffy died and went to heaven, and her friends couldn’t deal because they missed her too much and Willow was this badass mega-powerful witch who had the power to bring her back from the dead so she did, even though she maybe probably shouldn’t have. And then Buffy confessed to Spike:

Wherever I was, I was happy, at peace. Time didn’t mean anything. Nothing had form. But I was still me, you know? And I was warm. And I was loved. And I was finished. Complete…I think I was in heaven. And now I’m not. I was torn out of there…Everything here is hard and bright and violent…This is Hell.

In contrast, fire signs like Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are born with a zest and passion for life: Fuck ya, I’m here!! I’m so stoked to live!!

Whereas Pisces is lagging behind like…wait..why am I here? Why did I leave this place I can’t really remember but I know it was so much more warm and loving? What is this rigamarole that is humanity?? Fuck this, I wanna go home.

Both Pisces and Virgo, the sign that sits directly opposite to Pisces, want a life that serves a deep understanding of love as sacred, life as holy. All astrological oppositions are invested in the same thing, although they take completely opposite approaches to achieving that thing.

Virgo takes Pisces nostalgia and says: You know, all those people/places/situations you long for weren’t actually as perfect as you remember. That person you miss pissed you off most of the time, the atmosphere of that place you wanna go back to did weird things to your skin, that situation was kinda dreamy but it was mostly awkward. Virgo is earth – the tangible, the physical, the reality check.

Pisces wants to serve life by transcending to a place they can access some kind of sacred spirit – getting high, falling in love, being with nature or animals, or fantasizing. Virgo wants to serve life by making things better on the planet right now – in our bodies, in our tangible, physical relationships, in the hard work it takes to show up to the best version of ourselves, in every, tiny moment.

Like all astrological oppositions, if these two opposites can learn from one another, and find balance with one another, they have the potential of realizing the cosmic on earth, and finding heaven in the body.

I remember a time I was sitting quietly by the water near Lake Ontario and it hit me: Humanity does horrendous things to water, to Mama Earth. And yet water is still so nourishing. Still so healing. Still so giving. Water never stops giving us life. Water never stops loving.

I felt such wonder and respect in that simple moment. No matter what we do to this planet, the sun continues to give us warmth, the stars continue to shine and inspire, the trees continue to share their breath with us, water continues to give us everything we need. Mama Earth never says: Well, you did that shitty thing to me, and this shitty thing to me, so I am going to trust you a bit less. I’m going to love you a bit less. I don’t know what else to call this, but unconditional love. This love is the sacred feminine life-force of the planet.

In our current dominant culture, we see love that is forgiving, compassionate, kind, generous and awesomely giving and we call it weak. We call it “crazy.” We call it “stupid.” We use it, benefit from it, we sustain our livelihoods with it, and in the same breath we call it nonsense, we call it worthless. We exploit and take advantage of the fact that we can cause damage and we will still be loved. We will still be taken care of. The feminine will still make sure our needs our met. We think we can do this without consequences. But we can’t.

Without a doubt, there will always be consequences. When we disrespect sacred femininity, what we’re really doing is destroying ourselves. The truth is, Mama Earth does not need to be ‘saved.’ She’ll be around for long after we’re gone. She will heal from what we’ve done to her, she will re-build and transform into to whatever she becomes next. She will love us until our last collective breath. She will love our memory for long afterward.

The spirit of Pisces is the spirit of Mama Earth, is the spirit of sacred femininity. Pisces is one of the most vulnerable signs in the zodiac. Wherever we have Pisces in our birth chart, we have the greatest capacity to give generously and abundantly. It’s also where we are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Don’t ever take this to believe that the abuse is your fault. That your compassion and generosity made you weak. No, the weakness is theirs who chose to violate you; theirs who took advantage of your love. Think of Mama Earth. Centre yourself in the love of sacred femininity, the spirit of Pisces, and you’re not anything close to ‘weak.’ You have accessed the most resilient part of yourself and of existence as a whole.

What we can all do this Pisces Season is respect sacred femininity. The kind of femininity that is/has been the most degraded and the most resilient. Indigenous water protectors. Black trans femininity. Crazy, sick, disabled, femme of colour survivor, witchy, caregiver, sex worker, sensitive, spirit warriors. Mother Earth herself. Respect feminine leadership in movements for social change. Respect the feminine in your intimate relationships. Respect the sacred feminine inside of you, no matter what your gender. Respect the Pisces inside of you.

Our ability to move forward as a collective depends on this. We need the action of fire, the intellect of air, and the work of earth. But with the love of Pisces waters, we can make something beautiful from our pain. We can release our wrong-doings. We can transcend our emotional realities. We can connect with the deepest part of our humanity that only wants to love and make love as resilient and magnificent as the earth that gives us a home every day. As brilliant and awe-inspiring as the miracle of the universe.

Remember your connection to the universe and find the spirit of Pisces. The movement of the planets running through your bloodstreams. The dust and light of the night stars that make your bones sturdy. The in-and-out breath of trees, the rhythms of the seasons, and you as an integral part to what makes the universe whole.

Pisces returns to the start of every journey, because it knows the end is coming. And if everything would be over tomorrow, what else would you do, but love?

I found this looking for grief support after the loss of a beloved family bunny a few days ago. I’m pisces sun and pisces moon and this all resonates with me so much; it is giving me great comfort. The death of this little animal has affected me deeply and I am struggling to understand my experience, like I’ve gone deep into some collective mourning for something I don’t understand. Your writing reminds me of some parts of myself that I have lately forgotten and is helping me to be okay with my deep grief. Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing, I’m glad that you found this post when it was needed. I also feel deeply toward animal companions (I think it’s a Pisces/Neptune thing in many ways) and the deep grief that can trigger. Sending you warmth in your journey ❤

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About

Shaunga Tagore is an astrologer, writer, performer and producer based out of Toronto, Ontario. Big thanks to Jenny Chan & Lilly Garcia for the stellar website design, and to Melisse Watson for the spectacular illustration and artwork throughout the site.